These summertime backyard entertaining tips will make your 4th of July BBQ& other outdoors events a breeze!

Summer is filled with activities, and chances are that one of those events will take place in your own backyard. Entertaining outdoors can mean endless trips in and out of the house for items you run out of or things you may have forgotten. Here are some simple tips to keep you at your party instead of in the kitchen.

Six Backyard Entertaining Tips to Make Your Party Planning a Breeze!

1. Plan ahead with a hidden area for extras. Keep a large tub under one of your main tables filled with napkins, plates cups, and utensils. Keep an extra tub near your drink area for guests to drop their empty bottles and cans for easy recycling. (See Beverage Throughs (great for kegs!), Copper Beverage Tubs, or Galvanized Tub w/stand.

3. Have several music playlists ready to go and set to continuous play. See Sound Systems.

4. Plan a menu that can largely be prepared ahead of time. If you plan to grill, have your grill selections marinating ahead of time and simplify the process as much as possible. You want to actually enjoy the party and not be stuck at the grill or going back and forth to the kitchen the whole time. See Grills

5. Use citronella votives scattered all around the party scene. This will add warm light and ambiance, as well as keep those pesky mosquitoes at bay.

6. Don’t plan any gardening for the day before or the day of your event. This includes watering your garden. With guests walking around your backyard, you don’t want them sinking into soggy soil or being glued with grass clippings from a fresh cutting.